Johannesburg - The loan parastatal Eskom wants from the World Bank must be conditional on the divestment of the ANC's Chancellor House company from Hitachi Power Africa, the Independent Democrats said on Tuesday.
"The ANC, whose front company has a 25% share in Hitachi
Power Africa, which received the tender to build the Medupi and
Kusile coal-fired power stations, stands to financially benefit
directly from massive electricity tariff increases imposed on
ordinary South Africans," the party's Lance Greyling wrote in a
letter to World Bank president Robert Zoellick.
Eskom has applied for a R28bn loan from the institution,
largely to fund its Medupi power station.
The ID intended to exhaust "all avenues open
to us in our efforts to get the ANC to be true to the word of its treasurer-general, Mathews Phosa".
Phosa, he said, had first claimed the ANC would divest its
shares in Chancellor House, but then went back on his word.
"This issue is of paramount importance if we are to protect our
democracy and promote good governance principles in South Africa," Greyling said.
- Sapa